This application is related to subject matter disclosed in:
A1) U.S. provisional Application No. 60/183,499 entitled “Resonant optical power control devices and methods of fabrication thereof” filed Feb. 17, 2000 in the names of Peter C. Sercel and Kerry J. Vahala, said provisional application being hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety as if fully set forth herein;
A2) U.S. provisional Application No. 60/226,147 entitled “Fiber-optic waveguides for evanescent optical coupling and methods of fabrication and use thereof” filed Aug. 18, 2000 in the names of Peter C. Sercel, Guido Hunziker, and Robert B. Lee, said provisional application being hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety as if fully set forth herein;
A3) U.S. provisional Application No. 60/257,218 entitled “Waveguides and resonators for integrated optical devices and methods of fabrication and use thereof” filed Dec. 21, 2000 in the name of Oskar J. Painter, said provisional application being hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety as if fully set forth herein;
A4) U.S. provisional Application No. 60/257,248 entitled “Modulators for resonant optical power control devices and methods of fabrication and use thereof” filed Dec. 21, 2000 in the names of Oskar J. Painter, Kerry J. Vahala, Peter C. Sercel, and Guido Hunziker, said provisional application being hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety as if fully set forth herein;
A5) U.S. non-provisional application Ser. No. 09/788,303 entitled “Cylindrical processing of optical media”, filed Feb. 16, 2001 in the names of Peter C. Sercel, Kerry J. Vahala, David W. Vernooy, and Guido Hunziker, said non-provisional application being hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety as if fully set forth herein;
A6) U.S. non-provisional application Ser. No. 09/788,331 entitled “Fiber-ring optical resonators”, filed Feb. 16, 2001 in the names of Peter C. Sercel, Kerry J. Vahala, David W. Vernooy, Guido Hunziker, and Robert B. Lee, said non-provisional application being hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety as if fully set forth herein;
A7) U.S. non-provisional application Ser. No. 09/788,300 entitled “Resonant optical filters”, filed Feb. 16, 2001 in the names of Kerry J. Vahala, Peter C. Sercel, David W. Vernooy, Oskar J. Painter, and Guido Hunziker, said non-provisional application being hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety as if fully set forth herein;
A8) U.S. non-provisional application Ser. No. 09/788,301 entitled “Resonant optical power control device assemblies”, filed Feb. 16, 2001 in the names of Peter C. Sercel, Kerry J. Vahala, David W. Vernooy, Guido Hunziker, Robert B. Lee, and Oskar J. Painter, said non-provisional application being hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety as if fully set forth herein;
A9) U.S. provisional Application No. 60/301,519 entitled “Waveguide-fiber Mach-Zender interferometer and methods of fabrication and use thereof filed Jun. 27, 2001 in the names of Oskar J. Painter, David W. Vernooy, and Kerry J. Vahala, said provisional application being hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety as if fully set forth herein;
A10) U.S. provisional application No. 60/322,272 entitled “Fiber-optic-taper probe for characterizing transversely-optically-coupled waveguides and resonators” filed Sep. 13, 2001 in the name of David W. Vernooy, said provisional application being hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety as if fully set forth herein;
A11) U.S. provisional App. No. 60/335,656 entitled “Polarization-engineered transverse optical coupling apparatus and methods” filed Oct. 30, 2001 in the names of Kerry J. Vahala, Peter C. Sercel, Oskar J. Painter, David W. Vernooy, and David S. Alavi, said application being hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety as if fully set forth herein;
A12) U.S. provisional App. No. 60/334,705 entitled “Integrated end-coupled transverse-optical-coupling apparatus and methods” filed Oct. 30, 2001 in the names of Henry A. Blauvelt, Kerry J. Vahala, Peter C. Sercel, Oskar J. Painter, and Guido Hunziker, said application being hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety as if fully set forth herein;
A13) U.S. provisional App. No. 60/333,236 entitled “Alignment apparatus and methods for transverse optical coupling” filed Nov. 23, 2001 in the names of Charles I. Grosjean, Guido Hunziker, Paul M. Bridger, and Oskar J. Painter, said provisional application being hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein;
A14) U.S. non-provisional application Ser. No. 10/037,966 entitled “Multi-layer dispersion-engineered waveguides and resonators” filed Dec. 21, 2001 in the names of Oskar J. Painter, David W. Vernooy, and Kerry J. Vahala, said application being hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety as if fully set forth herein;
A15) U.S. provisional App. No. 60/360,261 entitled “Alignment-insensitive optical junction apparatus and methods employing adiabatic optical power transfer” filed Feb. 27, 2002 in the names of Henry A. Blauvelt, Kerry J. Vahala, David W. Vernooy, and Joel S. Paslaski, said provisional application being hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein;
A16) U.S. non-provisional application Ser. No. 10/187,030 entitled “Optical junction apparatus and methods employing optical power transverse-transfer” filed Jun. 28, 2002 in the names of Henry A. Blauvelt, Kerry J. Vahala, David W. Vernooy, and Joel S. Paslaski, said non-provisional application being hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein;
A17) U.S. non-provisional application Ser. No. 10/243,976 entitled “Fiber-optic-taper probe for characterizing transversely-optically-coupled waveguides and resonators” filed Sep. 13, 2002 in the name of David W. Vernooy, said non-provisional application being hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety as if fully set forth herein; and
A18) U.S. non-provisional application Ser. No. 10/284,041 entitled “Polarization-engineered transverse optical coupling apparatus and methods” filed Oct. 30, 2002 in the names of Kerry J. Vahala, Peter C. Sercel, Oskar J. Painter, David W. Vernooy, and David S. Alavi, said application being hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety as if fully set forth herein.
Transverse optical coupling (also referred to as transverse coupling, evanescent optical coupling, evanescent coupling, directional optical coupling, directional coupling, transverse optical power transfer, transverse transfer of optical power, transverse transfer) is discussed at length in several of the prior patent applications cited hereinabove, and the discussion need not be repeated herein. In so-called mode-interference coupling, the efficiency of transverse optical coupling between optical components is determined by the degree of transverse overlap between respective optical modes of the optical components (characterized by a coupling coefficient κ), by the propagation distance over which the modes overlap (i.e., interaction length L), and by the degree of modal index mismatch (characterized by Δβ=β1−β2, the β's being the propagation constants for the respective optical modes). In so-called adiabatic coupling, κ and Δβ vary gradually over the interaction length L so that substantially complete optical power transfer between the transverse-coupled waveguides occurs over a wider range of interaction lengths and/or relative transverse positions. Techniques and devices for efficient transverse optical coupling (mode-interference coupled or adiabatically coupled) between a fiber-optic taper and an optical waveguide fabricated on a substrate (as so-called planar waveguide) have been developed recently and may find applicability in the telecommunications industry. Examples include semiconductor-based optical multi-layer-reflector (MLR) waveguides and/or resonators as disclosed in applications A3, A9, and A14 cited hereinabove, and external-coupling waveguides as disclosed in applications A12, A15, and A16 cited hereinabove. Methods and apparatus disclosed herein may be suitable for other transversely-optically-coupled optical components as well. Transverse-coupled components may include waveguides wherein confinement of waveguide optical modes is achieved by lower-index cladding layers surrounding a core, distributed Bragg reflection, reflection from metal coatings, reflection from dielectric coatings, reflection from multi-layer coatings, and/or internal reflection from an air/waveguide interface. In order to attain the full potential of many devices employing transverse optical coupling, transverse overlap κ, interaction length L, and modal index mismatch Δβ (and variations thereof should preferably be engineered for achieving suitably reproducible and stable optical device performance.
Variations in device performance may arise from a number of sources. For example, variations in device performance may arise due to tolerances in fabrication and/or assembly processes, leading to uncertainties in component dimensions, relative positions, and/or modal indices. Variations may also arise through temperature-dependent changes in component dimensions, relative positions, and/or modal-indices, during and/or after fabrication/assembly of the device. After fabrication/assembly of an optical device, mechanical perturbations may lead to variation in relative positions of optical components within a device, in turn causing variations in device performance. Mechanical perturbations may include impact, shock, and/or vibration. Another source of device performance variation particularly relevant to optical devices that include transverse-coupled components is contamination of component surfaces. Transverse-coupled components often may support optical modes having evanescent portions, and such modes are particularly sensitive to contamination of optical component surfaces.